Fiber optic cabling is used in various types of air, space, land and sea-based platforms to provide high-speed data communications for on-board electronic systems, such as radar and mission control computer systems. In a typical wall mount fiber optic connector, the receptacle connector portion is connected to the wall mount of the electronic system and extends rearwardly within an overall housing or system chassis of the electronic system. The mating plug connector portion is removably positioned into the receptacle connector portion from the outside of the housing.
Such typical wall mount fiber optic connectors are passive connectors, and consequently, these connectors merely pass the optical signals through the connector. Passive connectors require fiber optic cabling within the electronic system from the connector to opto-electronic (O/E) converters. O/E converters convert electrical signals to optical signals, and optical signals to electrical signals. When routing each optical fiber from the wall mount fiber optic connector to an appropriate O/E converter within the housing, several problems are encountered.
First, a minimum cable bend radius should be observed within the housing to avoid cracking the glass fiber. Second, each time an optical signal passes through a connector interface, the power level of the optical energy is reduced, which subtracts from the overall optical link budget of the electronic system.
In expanded function electronic systems, the optical fiber from the wall mount fiber optic connector may be routed through an optical fiber backplane within the housing, which then routes the optical fibers to specific locations on an electrical backplane that is also within the housing. Circuit boards containing the O/E converters connect through the electrical backplane to the optical fiber backplane. The use of an optical fiber backplane within the housing adds to the cost, weight and complexity of each electronic system, as well as to the overall volume of the system.
In an attempt to address the above noted problems, active fiber optic connectors are available. These connectors include O/E converters as part of the connectors for converting between the two signal types within the connector itself. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,596,665 to Kurashima et al. discloses such a fiber optic connector having a generally rectangular housing and includes receptacle connector portions to receive mating plug connector portions, and circuitry within the housing converts optical signals to electrical signals and vice-versa. The fiber optic connector is designed for easy assembly and includes reference surfaces and bias members to permit insertion of the fiber optic sleeves. However, the fiber optic connector in Kurashima et al. is not a wall mount fiber optic connector.
Another active fiber optic connector is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0118293 to Canace et al. The connector may be mounted to a bulkhead or wall, and includes fingers, to provide resilience for leeway in the positioning of the connector relative to the wall in the direction of the optical axis of the optical fibers. Flexible circuit boards are also used to mount the components within the housing. Unfortunately, this active fiber optic connector is not particularly well suited for harsh environments. Maintaining alignment of the optical fibers in the plug connector portion with the O/E converters in the receptacle connector portion is a problem under harsh environments, which are typically encountered in various types of air, space, land and sea-based platforms.